They belatedly started to think of themselves as energy providers.

他们很晚才开始认为自己是能源供应商。

Other retail energy providers used a different strategy to manage the market unpredictability: pass the risk on to their customers by offering direct access to wholesale energy rates for a monthly fee.

其他零售能源提供商采用不同的策略来管理市场的不可预测性：通过按月付费直接获取批发能源费率，将风险转嫁给客户。